HOME ALONE
Trent Szmolnik
It’s been just over a 100 years since the last world wide pandemic of epic proportions and now in 2020 due to Covid-19 or coronavirus we are all (or most of us) left with a strange and solitary new way of life, not really knowing how long it’s going to last for or what situation we will be in when it’s all over. This is definitely a life experience that we may not have asked for but will be talked about in years to come.
The first thing we need to do is try not to worry about the future but to deal with the now and be present in our own lives and our friends and families. However as Staying In is the new Going Out this may not necessarily be a bad thing. A lot of us probably need some time out to reflect and slow down. It’s always too tempting to burn the candle at both ends, wanting the career and not wanting to miss out on being out there in life, as ever it’s all about balance.
The temptation to treat this situation like a 2 week holiday where we might let go, stay in our PJ’s and just binge eat, binge drink and binge Netflix but actually at the moment we are looking at 2 months, may be longer, therefore we need to make this the new ‘normal’ and have a long term attitude. We need to be active in self care and think about how we are going to spend our time, looking after ourselves and others.
Benjamin Combs
- Before we settle into our new routine, there needs to be a little thought and preparation time. Try and think of it as a blessing, like taking a cheeky duvet day. We have come up with some thoughts that you may find helpful.
- How ever you decide to spend your time or you may be still working but from home, it’s still important for you to have a routine. Carve out you’re day in chunks of time, now being able to schedule all the things you’ve always wanted to do, not just work and chores but self care time as well. Try and keep to the same times in terms of getting up and going to bed.
Annie Spratt
- The spaces in your home can be used differently so you are not in the same position all day and you have changing view points or possibly move around your home following the sunlight. Think about the different spaces you need eg. work space, relaxation space, exercise space.
- Having a good morning routine really does give you the best start to the day. Follow the Hal Elrod 6 Practices of The Miracle Morning with the addition of a healthy breakfast, plenty of water with lemon juice and a well thought out outfit, Hal’s practices include:
Thought Catalog
1) Silence - Silence meaning Meditation which has a nearly endless list of proven health benefits for your body and mind, from less stress and anxiety to more creativity and clarity. You could try a Meditation app like Calm or Headspace of you may what to search out your favourite Yogi or spiritual guide on YouTube.
2) Affirmations - An affirmation is a sentence in alignment with what you want to accomplish, you may want to write them down, place them on the bathroom mirror and repeat out loud next morning.
Lesly Juarez
3) Visualisation - Visualise living your ideal day, being positive, performing all tasks with ease, confidence and enjoyment.
4) Reading - He recommends a minimum of 10 pages per day total and suggests choosing a personal development book. The fastest way to achieve what you want is to model successful people who have already achieved it.
5) Writing - This could be journaling, making a gratitude list, planning your goals, your bucket list, this is a great time to be thinking about all of these.
6) Exercise - can be something as simple as a 10-minute yoga routine you do on your living room floor. You just need to get moving and get the blood and oxygen flowing to the brain. There are lots of apps and Fitness gurus on You Tube to support you and keep you going. Our favourite Yogi is Yoga with Adriene who provides free yoga for everyone at all levels.
Aaron Burden
Or try Cassey Ho who is an award-winning fitness instructor, entrepreneur and personality based in Los Angeles, she is the creator of Blogilates or down load an app like Fiit which brings the gym right into your home.
- Or add some nostalgia to your fitness routine with old school fitness videos, which are on trend at the moment, like Jane Fondas Original Workout from 1982 or Cindy Crawford’s Shape Your Body workout. You can find them on Youtube for free.
- This time is a great opportunity to achieve all those new year goals that you started at the beginning of the year, that may have faded away but they’re also goals that you now may not be able to achieve or important plans that were made that had to be cancelled like your wedding, or a dream holiday. You must accept that change is part of life and accept what’s happening now, reassure yourself that everything in life happens for a reason.
Thought Catalog
You have to simply look at it as an opportunity for something different and new to happen. In terms of time scales you may not be following your plan so therefore just change the plan! A good read on this is The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer about stop trying to force your own destiny and just let life be in charge.
- Remind yourself of what you are in control of, you choose how to use your time at home, what you eat, how much you exercise, who you speak to, its all about having a positive mindset.
- Don’t set your expectations too high. Give yourself a break, be compassionate with yourself and others. Congratulate the small victories every day, “hurrah I’m surviving a world wide pandemic and I got out of bed.
Dollar Gill
today, showered and got dressed.” Take it one day at a time. If one day you don’t get to achieve everything than it’s ok, start again tomorrow or re plan the schedule, maybe it’s not quite right for you and may need a few attempts on getting it right.
- Communication - Its so important particularly if you live alone that you organise time to chat with friends and family. Plan a date and time and put it in the diary as though you are meeting for a drink or lunch. Try and have some contact every day if you can, even if it’s just text. This is a great help in dealing with stress and helps us to feel strong and supported especially if those friends are positive so choose wisely. For fun you can also go old school and send someone a postcard or write them a letter. This will be received with joy and make someones day. We can still be kind even when we are isolated.
Katie Smith
- Eat well - It’s very easy to slip into bad habits due to the unusual situation that we’re all in but we must keep our immune systems healthy and be as well and as fit as we can. Top up with supplements if you are concerned particularly vitamins C and D. Try make meal times more interesting, have fun with food, learn some new recipes. Some top chefs are now cooking on Instagram during the lockdown, showing us how it’s done for free.
- Body Maintenance - Of course this is a great time for creating your own spa at home. Before you start, unwind with a glass of wine or a herbal tea then light some scented candles, put on some relaxing music and enjoy a steam facial or face mask and then maybe have a soak in the bath and some visualisation. With all this time there will be no excuse not to have perfectly manicured and pedicured nails all the time.
taylor hernandez
- Simple things - Don’t forgot that some of the simpler things in life can make us happy - feeding the birds, growing plants from seeds or bulbs, listening to music.
- Reading - At the time of writing, Waterstones and Amazon are still selling online so stock up on books. Even if you’re not a big reader you can still enjoy audio books and podcasts via Audible.
- Limit Negative News - Times like this, can make the news obsessive and have a negative effect so limit your time watching the news, take in the facts and leave the speculation. Also limit your screen time, social media can bring us together but again try not to pick up your phone continuously throughout the day.
- Obviously this is a great time to start all those projects you always wish you had time for. Here’s our top 10 ideas.
Sarah Brown
1. Declutter - If you’re serious about a declutter and would like to move towards a more minimal lifestyle, there are many benefits to this. Having less possessions means your home is easier to clean and organise. It’s also less stress and you can think more clearly. You spend more wisely because you don’t want to mess it all up again. Plus a clean, clear living space looks beautiful keeping the mind calm and peacefully living in your own sanctuary.
2. Be Creative - Creating art helps you relax, reduces stress, and improves critical thinking skills and concentration.While you might think that creating art means painting, drawing, or sculpting, you don’t have to produce fine art to reap the benefits of creating. Creative hobbies of all kinds — cooking, scrap booking, knitting, photography, gardening and do-it-yourself home repair– will also fit the bill.
Olliss
All of these activities force you to use and expand your imagination. If you don’t feel that being artistic is your thing, a simple way to get started is with adult colouring which is a relaxing and mindful exercise. All you need is a blank drawing to colour and a set of coloured pencils. You can buy adult colouring books or print free images at websites such as Super Coloring. Don’t obsess over whether your creations are any good. Keep in mind that it’s the process of creating that’s important, not the end result.
3. Online Course - In a world that’s so fast paced, it’s essential to keep up to date with technology trends therefore to up-skill has now become increasingly necessary. A key advantage to online learning is that you can complete training in your own time and therefore means it’s accessible to all. It doesn’t have to be career related, there are now online courses for everything -
Jacqueline Kelly
D.I.Y, self development, learning a language, make you’re own wine, the list goes on.
4. Self Development - To highlight areas that need developing, start with a personal development plan which is an account of self-reflection and improvement, which doubles up as a detailed action plan used to fulfil personal, or career based goals and works by allowing you to establish your aims, recognise your strengths and weaknesses, and identify your goals. Objectives are put in place based on the areas you’d like to improve on, and the plan consists of your own personalised actions that will help you to achieve them.
There are a lot of coaches / speakers / mentors etc you can follow you help you with this on Youtube and social media depending what areas you are looking to improve on.
Gabriel Crismariu
5. Brain Stimulation - Puzzles are becoming more and more popular, both to unwind and to challenge the brain. Some of the benefits are improved short term memory and problem solving skills, delayed Dementia and Alzheimer’s, improves mood and lowers stress. You can get jigsaws for Amazon or you can do them online.
6. Write a journal or a book - This might be the right time to start writing a journal that captures each day of your life, thoughts that cross your mind, gratitude, affirmations, identifying passions or interests, setting goals and tracking results or now you have time to release that novel inside you that’s been waiting to come out.
7. Spring Clean - Well, it is Spring after all and right now it’s more important than ever. Cleaning your house from top to bottom can be overwhelming, take it room by room, whether you dedicate the whole weekend to it or want to do an hour every day, you'll have a cleaner, more liveable space in no time.
sarandy westfall
8. Photograph Organisation - Gather up all those loose photos in shoe boxes and old albums that are a bit worse for wear and start getting rid of all the worse ones, that are blurred or where everyone looks bad. Divided the photos into six major collections: vintage family photographs, childhood, college, post-college, travel, and mystery and put them into labelled, acid-free, archival photo storage boxes. You could then divide up travel into countries or time periods. Put them in to new all same albums or you may what to save them digitally.
9. Admin Housekeeping - Unsubscribe to unwanted emails, clean up organise computer files and file bank statements and utility bills or better still organise to go paperless.
The Honest Company
10. Family Tree research - Get organised, talk to all your elder relations for any history and go on a treasure hunt to find any memorabilia in your loft or get them involved searching in their loft and then with the information that you’ve gathered, go online FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, and Archives.com. Do manage your expectations as most of us came from ordinary people. There is however, a wonderful satisfaction in working out your own family stories. Each record we find represents something seemingly insignificant, but sometimes these events were life-changing experiences for our ancestors and therefore for us.
- Be a Human Being not Doing - Finally after this long list of possibilities of how to be productive, remember to also factor in time just to be still and pause. Don’t use this as an excuse to distract from your feelings. Embrace this moment and then move on.